New employee behaviours, work designs and forms of work organization

Abstract

The article reviews assumptions commonly made about a changing psychological contract at work and questions whether we have understated the changes that might alter future work behaviour. Research that has examined the adaptations to work being made by employees and the future generation of workers is highlighted. The initial experience of work in virtual organizations is considered. It is argued that we shall witness fundamental transitions in forms of work organization. Initially this will not compensate for the deterioration in the psychological contract that has been experienced by those who have lived through an era of downsizing. However, it will raise the need to develop new competencies to cope with the changes in work design. The need for more studies on numerically restricted but meaningful work populations (such as teleworkers, virtual teams, international managers, employees in small and medium‐sized enterprises, small project‐based forms of organization) is signalled.